At the end of last week, the US State Department approved the sale of helicopters to the Philippines, as part of an FMS (Foreign Military Sales) procedure. As so often with FMS, this does not necessarily presume a future contract between the Philippine Air Force and American industry. Indeed, the FMS are often granted by the political authorities while the negotiations are not finished, which makes it possible to accelerate the sale and the delivery in the event that a firm sale is signed later.
This administrative feature explains why the FMS authorizations relate to two very distinct offers. One is the sale of six Bell AH-1Z Viper helicopters for $ 450 million. The other offer concerns six Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardians sold for an impressive amount of $ 1,5 billion! What left the choice to Manila, even if the American helicopters are not the only ones in competition in the Philippines. The price difference between the Viper and the Apache is due to several reasons.
Boeing/Bell : two very different offers
First, offers do not relate to the same content. The overall support associated with the Viper thus includes only a minimum of spare parts (notably two spare engines and an additional navigation system) and a symbolic weapons pack (six Hellfire missiles, twenty-six APKWS laser-guided rockets) . The Apache, for their part, are offered with six spare engines, 200 Hellfire anti-tank missiles and 300 APKWS, much more consistent with operational use. Thus, in the event of selection of the Viper, the Philippines will have to negotiate another sale for the supply of additional weapons, while the total amount of an Apache contract could be renegotiated downwards. Indeed, the “Apache” package probably contains many more navigation systems (fifteen for six helicopters) and Stinger air-to-air missiles (200, as many as the Hellfires that the Apache carries in much greater numbers). As it stands, however, the difference in content between the two arms offers should probably not account for more than $100 million.
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